Possessed
by Modest Truth
Summary: “Death’s not so bad… You’ll see.” Retelling of the end of the movie when Jonah possessed Matt with a slash-spin. Rated M for swearing.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Hello! I've edited a few things around since the last time I messed with this fic.

Written in Matt's POV, mostly.

* * *

**Possessed**

Matt's POV:

I still remember that night vividly. It is a time and place that I will never fully escape from…

My body was failing with every slow second that passed, but I wasn't exactly what you could call "dead." No, not entirely. I was _fading_ and _frightened_ that _this really was __**it**__._ That surely the next time I closed my eyes they would never again open.

No, I wasn't entirely there…floating in the haze of my pain, fear, confusion…

And Jonah.

Jonah was there too.

He's all I can vividly remember after the ghosts surrounded me, watching with those black, haunted eyes.

_The fireman pumping my chest, Mom begging me to live, _that_ forsaken house burning in the background._

I was no longer in my body, but floating above everything with him...

Jonah…

If I thought I had been going through Hell, then… I was dead wrong. Apparently, a soul's only natural home is in a living body or passed on. Not stuck in-between.

Not imprisoned with multitudes of poltergeists whose graves you had desecrated and then forcibly bound to the physical world. Not with vehement specters that would burn you alive to ensure you remained bound there with them. Destined to spend an eternity weaving your envious, weightless bodies tortuously around living souls. Destined for an eternity of pain, of wanting so deeply to live and die and end your own consciousness…

When Jonah pulled himself into my failing body we had initiated a contract of sorts. There was a moment of agony as he ripped himself from the material world and crammed inside me.

It was indescribable. He pushed my very soul aside to make room for himself and in the end we were both left writhing in silent anguish. Alone. Together. Apart. Unreachable. Too close. And suddenly too far away. That moment was the span of a lifetime.

Then it was done. Over. The pain extinguished. Except for the staggering malaise brought on by my cancer. But that was really nothing in comparison. Just old wounds…Old pain mixed in with this strange, entirely foreign sensation.

Like I could feel Jonah everywhere and he could feel me. His urgency, his absolute _need_ to be at that house.

Suddenly, I knew everything, anything about him. From the smallest, most intimate details to the most pressing. And I could feel that he knew me as well. _My dad and his drinking. His abusive behavior. His equally abusive sister. My hopeful cousins who picked the lesser of two evils. My mother who prayed it was her and not me. The self-pity I had for myself. Every wicked thought that ever ran through my head. All of my most embarrassing moments. My most intimate. And the list went on…_

_The house._

I needed to destroy the house. Burn it and set their souls free. I now understood everything and more. More than I ever wanted to know about Aickmen and his relationship with Jonah.

Jonah who had existed in pain since his death.

_Stand up, Matt._

And for a long time before his death too…

He winced. _Stop thinking and stand. _

His voice was soft; light like eyelashes fluttering shut.…

_Please…_.

I worked my eyes open and the act exhausted me. I lay face-up on the sickly pink-beige hospital floor, my arms and legs twisted into my chest like an expired corpse. I was still in the Psych Unit. My roommate choked on his manic bout of laughter and smiled eerily down upon me. Like he could see **both** of us. Jonah's voice forced its way to the front of my mind.

_Now, Matt. Hurry_.

I sucked a breath of air in, rolled to my side and stood up slowly as Jonah bombarded me with visions of his afterlife. His spirit had been placating the others. A memory was forced before my very eyes, leaving me blind.

The entrapped souls were screaming, murderous in their uproar. After Jonah's remains were torn from the house, his soul along with it, they were left in the darkness. Without any light and devoid of hope.

His eyes… I could feel Jonah's eyes roaming my body, inside my body, looking through me and at me at the same time. The symbols carved into my body. They were too familiar now. Much too familiar. With every pass of his eyes over my torso I felt his heart plummet.

_Matt…They were going to take you… I was gone and they…. _

"K-keep me there? They'd go so far…?"

_Of course. They were waiting…all this time, _he thought,_ for you to die._

My body was doubling over. Stomach acid and bright green bile painted the floor beneath me. Was it me or was it both of us; who—?

_They won't have you. __**I won't**__ let them have you, Matt. Now, hurry._

I was moving. Up from the bed and out of the window. Faster than I can ever remember running. Jonah's spirit was guiding me, pulling me magnetically to the house he had inhabited. I could feel his legs pumping alongside mine, inside of mine. And he felt real.

_Real_.

As if his hands were pushing at my back and pulling from my front to just… M_ove faster!_

But despite everything, _I_ was the one failing. Physically, I felt myself begin to slow, my atrophied muscles spasming; painfully obvious and indicative of the sad condition of the body he possessed.

Jonah hesitated, contemplating the consequences of not reaching the house in time.

I froze, seeing the deaths of my entire family through his mind's eye.

It wasn't an option. So we ran on and on and down the half-deserted highway, through the graveyard by the church, past an old playground, the black-top behind an elementary school… The sharp pain lanced through me like needles, burning in my lungs and joints, stabbing bare feet all the way to my eyes.

My heart constricted oddly in my chest, quivering. It went still for a beat.

Two beats.

Three beats.

I tripped, falling.

All the air was gone from my lungs on impact and I lay there.

Unable to move, unable to speak. My mind was chaos.

But, I could still feel Jonah with me. I could feel him spreading out and around me. I could feel his **fear**.

_Please, God._

The strangest thing happened.

The sensation of a cold fist wrapped around my heart, squeezing again and again.

Pumping. Pumping my heart and forcing blood through my veins. Bringing me back from the edge.

_Not yet, Matt. You can't leave this world yet. Not until we make it. Not until they are free, Matt. Please try for me. __**For your family.**_

_Jonah… Just until the house is burning._

He possessed me fully. Again, the pain was staggering. Our souls crammed against each other as he took command of my physical body.

Standing, he winced with my face and clenched my teeth.

"So… this is cancer…?"

_Yeah_, I answered weakly from somewhere inside. I no longer felt connected to my own body. I was paralyzed. He held onto my soul. Like a child running, dragging his balloon along by a thin, taught ribbon.

If he were to let me go right now…

A stab of pity emanated from his soul. "Burning to death will be quicker. Don't worry."

_You would know._ He could feel me wishing I wouldn't have to die, let alone die possessed.

I heard him laugh. "Death's not so bad… You'll see."

_You're memories say otherwise._

"They will disappear with my soul, only bliss awaits us."

_Do you believe in God?_

"Matt…" He slowed to a stop, despite himself, gulping down lungfuls of air.

_I don't. I don't know what to believe._

"They used me… like you are. People who didn't quite believe in anything."He wheezed and coughed. "Doubters. The ones always seeking answers."

_I'm __**not**__ trying to use you._

"But you are. You want me to tell you… hah. You want me to say that God is real. That He exists and will right every wrong." He coughed again and shakily exhaled.

"I can't lie to you, Matt, because I don't know. I'm not exactly passed on…yet_."_

_But you've been living in Hell with those souls for so long now!_

"It is simply the most painful thing I've ever experienced. Until I died I didn't know this pain existed. Who knows? Maybe passing on will be even worse. _Maybe I will go to Hell._ But things cannot stay the way they are now… The monotony, the tedium. Being trapped in a prison of hate, misery, and pain; I imagine that to be Hell. If I do nothing, then I'm already there. You would try too."

I cringed as Jonah unconsciously replayed the memories accompanying his words.

But, I couldn't tear my eyes away…

_God, just run!_

His dark laugh chilled right to my core as we continued in the direction of _that_ house.

"Running to meet your fate, Matt?" He interrupted.

_Fate… No, that's not right. I would have died anyway. 'Might as well _do_ something good before I'm gone. _

I felt him mentally pause as my body went through the motions of running. Blessedly, my feet were beginning to tingle and go numb. It was like running on stumps.

"I promise that the flames will never touch you. At least, not while you are conscious. We can wait until the fumes have—"

_**Stop**__. Not until I have to think about it, okay?_

"Matt, you're not alone."

_I haven't been alone in months thanks to you._

He stopped abruptly. His acute embarrassment punctuated my own. Of course, I knew that too. The way he watched me all of those months…how he thought of me… But it was too late for either of us to hide our faces in shame. And I decided that it didn't matter. How could it matter when I was about to be dead? Let him feel what he wants. It doesn't change anything.

That's what I thought…

It was an odd sensation to feel my arms wrap around myself, but it happened and I could feel icy hands soothing over cuts. More pairs of arms than just my own… Another pair of hands, another body even. The sweat down my back made me shiver.

_You feel so real._

He chuckled, starting to run harder than before.

"I will be with you until the end."

He tuned me out shortly after. It was all my laughing.

It had to be.

Because this was just too fucked up.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: ^_^ More editing!**

* * *

We made it to the house after what felt like a marathon run on a road of hot coals and broken syringes.

"You, know. It's amazing how many textures of pain a human body can feel. I had almost forgotten…"

_Count yourself lucky._

"I might like the variety."

_There's…really nothing I can say to that._

"I need something. An ax or baseball bat."

My memory was foggy. _An ax should be around here somewhere…near the shed or in that one stump…_

We stepped from the gravel road to the wet grass. I sighed somewhere in my mind at the cool texture. It was short lived though. His frown painted my face as even the cool wet grass began to burn.

"There!" Jonah reached through me to rip the gleaming ax from its home in the wood. We steadily approached the house.

_Hey! Hey wait! Put it down and then talk to them. Put it the fuck down! Wendy…You're scaring her. _

He continued to move purposefully towards the kitchen entrance.

_Look at her face, Jonah! She's afraid of me. You're making her scared of me. Fuck!_

"There's no time. She locked the door…"

_She'd be crazy not to! Do you know what I look like right now?_

"Like a dead boy?"

The anger I felt in that moment shocked him. I forced myself through the pain until I was present in my own body again. Until I was positive that the only one holding the ax was me. I began carving away at the door. Wendy shrieked from inside and I worked faster. The kids were beginning to cry… and I imagined… I imagined the dead descending upon them. The cadavers smothering their screams and stealing their breath.

_Don't. Don't fucking touch them you motherfuckers!_

I moved through the threshold and forced my way to Wendy and Billy. But at the last moment… Words failed… What words were there for a moment like this?

I had to _show_ them.

Raising the ax above my head I brought it down again and again. As the wood-paneled walls splintered and cracked, you could see them. The bodies…

Wendy and Billy. They saw, but they probably wouldn't understand. Not until later.

The house was impatient, creaking, moaning, and I felt the spirits all around, thrumming with hate, malice, anticipation…. They still wanted me.

_Matt, hurry._

I grabbed them both and half dragged them through the room.

"Get out. You have to get out of the house. You can't be in here!"

I locked the door behind them and felt Jonah's presence begin to spread, taking over. I leaned against the locked door of my tomb and peered out from the window, counting. _One, two, three…._ And then again.

_One._

_Two._

_Three._

_One more to be sure…_

_They're all out, Matt. They are safe. Now help me! _

I nodded, moving again to pick up the ax. One wall, two walls, three walls, four… Bodies tumbled lifelessly, like rubber dolls one after another.

Chairs and tables lay splintered in the corners of each room.

_The formaldehyde is flammable. They won't burn without more of it. _

It only took a second and we were down there in the heart of it all.

I was positive that the "unseeing" spirits' eyes were fixed upon us now.

And their gaze was as real as a physical touch.

The shuddering, shaking of my body was outside of both our control.

I ripped the door open and shattered an entire shelf of the bottles of formaldehyde.

They came crashing down with an aged, toxic smell.

It startled me, but Jonah had taken over.

We were outside of the room in a second, grabbing a wooden basin, and in a moment's span had filled it with the remainder of the bottles.

And a pack of matches.

"It begins and ends here." I couldn't remember who said it, or who struck the first match. As it fell, I had the terrible fear that it wouldn't light, that it was all for nothing. Months of living in fear on the brink of death in a house full of spirits desperately vying for revenge on anything living...or dead.

I was gone.

Deep somewhere inside myself, I knew it was time. And I felt hate for the dead things trapped here and even more hate for the ones who had imprisoned them in this house.

"Matt. Matt, come back."

The anger gave me power.

I opened my eyes and we were in the dining room, now trashed and littered with half-decomposed bodies. A match was in my hand; I looked at it in wonder. I could hear the cracking and roaring of the fire in the basement, and the hissing gas in the kitchen. I knew this was it.

"Here, Matt. This is the last room…. I won't do it for you. You have to make the decision."

_As if we could run now…Everywhere burning and no windows left._

My hate for Jonah overwhelmed me and I could feel him pressing back against the walls in my body.

I focused on them, their lid-less eyes and grey-black corpses. Jonah was trapped in a moment of silent agony as he relived the memories of Aickmen, of _himself_ carving into these corpses, digging them up from hallowed ground, desecrating their bodies, calling their souls back to this world, keeping them here….

"Don't they look familiar, Jonah? You helped him do this, after all…"

Jonah was on his knees inside me, begging… No. Not begging for me to stop.

But, willing, hoping, wishing for me to light the last match.

With one, last look, I did.

It's kind of beautiful how quickly a fire can spread, especially when it's one you've trapped yourself in.

You see, it doesn't really give you a chance to change your mind.

All I could do was help it grow faster. And faster, until the heat made my body burn.

Like the cancer and the chemo and the fucking symbols carved into my fucking body.

_Burn. _Like the smoke in my lungs and the stones still stuck in my feet.

This was me, burning away from the _heat_ that was cooking me from the inside-out and the outside-in.

I wanted the fire to consume _**everything**_, just like it was consuming me. And the bodies standing all around with their sightless eyes and pitiless stares.

Those eyes that saw eternity.

And all I could think, sinking to my knees was, _"At least you had the chance to live your lives… Even if they kept you locked in here… I'm 17, 'barely started…"_

They reached down and laid their hands on me like iron bars made of flesh. And because the pain was everywhere already, it didn't hurt the way I wanted it to.

They were comforting me…

The embrace of many arms around you at once, somehow made everything hurt less.

And I could feel Jonah there, inside me.

With me.

This is us. Burning away together. "Until the end."

_It's just the beginning, Matt._

It's not so scary anymore. Not the way I wanted it to be.

Because you can hate what you are afraid of… And you can fear what you don't understand.

I stayed there until the darkness came.

The last thing I remember thinking:

"_At least I lived at all."_

She was sobbing over me as I stood above my body and many others. Firemen, police, neighbors, my siblings, my father, my mother, and myself…

Jonah and I stood side by side. I looked away from it all, towards him.

No, not standing. Floating. A genuine out-of-body floating.

"Why aren't you passed-on?"

Jonah just smiled at me. "Because I'm one dead boy possessing one still-living boy?"

"Really?" _I'm still alive?_ I didn't feel much of anything, not physically and not emotionally. Not until I felt him take my hand…

It was a shock more than anything. "How could my body even survive in the first place?"

Jonah smiled. It was a sad, small smile… "Your mother loves you very much."

Despite everything, warmth overwhelmed me as I gazed down on her absolutely hysteric, sobbing form. I felt so loved…and even a little guilty for it. I squeezed his hand, "It's alright, Jonah."

He looked at me and I could tell that he was taken back.

"Oh, right…" He smirked, "Well, I should be used to it by now…" His thumb brushed the back of my hand reassuringly. "Aickmen… I thought he was my guardian angel, sent to save the poor, depraved orphan who talked to dead people… But, that's—" _Not what reality had in store for me…._

He laughed, fisting a hand over his right eye looking like he'd rather rip it out than spend another moment in the past. "It's amazing how many textures of pain a human heart can feel."

"Jonah…" And Hell, with everything that happened to us, I just... didn't think, and without realizing it I moved to embrace him. "I know. _I know._"

"Yes, you're the only one." His arms opened up, but it felt as though I was tumbling through dead space.

He laughed even harder, but this time it sounded genuine.

"Like this, Matt…" He wrapped his arms around me and I pulled him to my chest. We stayed like that.

"Lots of practice?" I smiled as his head nodded gently.

"Lots of practice."

"So…what are we made of right now?"

He huffed. "I have no idea."

"It… It feels good to be here." He blinked and looked up at me questioningly. "I don't feel any pain anymore…"

He frowned, retracting, turning away from me. But I didn't let go of him. How could I? For the longest time I was barely able to receive a hug, let alone return one… I didn't, I didn't want to let go.

I had already given up so much…

His hair tickled my face and my palms felt hot against his chest.

"You will feel pain, though. Any time now, you'll feel it. Because I'm returning you to your body."

"What do y—Argh!" It came upon me in the blink of an eye, but I didn't let go of him. I held even tighter, if possible.

The pain… was unbearable.

It was the same old pain, but this time it felt brand new.

Bare, naked, raw.

"Nnngh!" I moaned, gasping, trying to form the one question we were both asking. I had doubled our forms over, holding on with all the strength that I possessed.

"'Why,' Matt?" His arms settled over mine around his waist. "I want to ask you the same thing… Why is life so unfair? After I died, I had accepted it. I had _decades_ to accept it. But, why is it…that you now make me wish for so many things? Impossible things…"

I felt my head dip forward between his neck and shoulder, no longer able to support itself. We were spirits, no longer floating over anything. We were sunk, me into my body and him into the ground. And my arms refused to release him.

"Jon—ahh!" He was freezing now. As cold as death, while I was still burning alive…

He removed an arm and pushed against me.

"P-please!" I was grasping for something, anything, because it felt like I was falling. And the pain didn't feel any less distant.

"No, Matt."

He leaned back for a moment as though he wanted to stay.

"Your body's not big enough for two souls. No body is."

_Don't leave! _

He smiled and pulled away completely. I sunk further into my body, feeling as though I were being buried alive in quicksand. He was sinking, too. Down into the earth, more and more quickly. His two, cool hands hit my burning face and soothed it numb. My eyes widened as he leaned forward, and the cooling sensation blossomed again from where our foreheads touched.

I stared into two, sad blue eyes.

"Am I your friend, Matt?" He whispered, breath cool upon my skin and in my lungs as I breathed the words in.

"Y_es_." I could feel his grip beginning to slip as we sunk further into our resting places. _Losing you_.

"It hurts, Jonah."

"Here?" A thumb brushed against my bottom lip and I closed my eyes.

_Let him. Let it happen._

His mouth covered my own and moved gently, until I could no longer feel my lips… Until I no longer felt anything at all…


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I forgot how much I liked this fic... I suck for leaving it unfinished for so long.**

* * *

It was like someone had hit the fast-forward button on my life.

Only days ago, I was seeing my death.

And Jonah…

His death too, I suppose.

Mom was there, right to my left in a sleeper-chair. She didn't look so good. Probably had been there since I was admitted. There were still ashes smudged against her cheeks, tear-tracks cutting lines through the grey.

And I was here.

I was alive to witness it all.

A nurse came in making rounds, "Hi, I see that you're awake now."

Two digits of her hand immediately wrapped around my wrist, taking my pulse.

"Can you tell me your name?"

"Mathew Campbell."

"And the date?"

"Uhhh… Not sure."

"Okay, it's the 27th. Do you know where you are today?"

"I'm in the hospital. I burned a house down."

She quirked a brow. "What is your pain like, on a scale of 1-10?"

"It's… a 3? But, only my skin." I felt shocked. "Hey, I don't feel anything else!"

"Just these scratches and the burns, but I don't feel anything else. My joints, I can move without pain, right now! Is this from medication?"

"Actually, we took a blood sample when you were admitted. Your oncologist, Dr. Lau, would like to speak with you once your mother wakes up."

_Oh, God. Here it comes… Saved only to die here pathetically. This must be it. My nerves are shot. No feeling at all, not just in the tips of my fingers and toes now. It's gotta be everywhere. It spread._

Why couldn't I have just gone with him when I had my chance?

Why?

Looking over I saw Mom shift and turn. I didn't want to wake her… Actually, I knew that I probably shouldn't have.

"Mom." My voice was loud in the quiet room.

"Mom, I'm alive. Wake up." Her form froze for a moment, before she looked straight into my eyes.

"Mom, I—"

I've never seen her move so fast.

Correction, I've never seen her go from zero to tears so fast.

But there it was and we were hugging and crying.

I say "we" because in the end it was a fool's victory. Living through a fire to burn to death in an entirely different way.

Cooked from the inside-out by chemo. And in the end, dying still.

It was more irony than a life could take. You could say…

The tears streaming down endlessly were nowhere near finished, even as I spoke. "Hey, calm down. I know, I know…"

"_Matt, what were you thinking? You almost died, Matt. How could you be so STUPID? The house! All of our belongings!" _

"I had to. You knew…Everyone knew something was wrong with that house. Only I can see them, Mom. They weren't hallucinations, it's because I am so close to dying. I can see things." She looked at me with tears still filling her eyes and a solemn face. She was trying; that was good. "There was no time. I had to do it before I died. Or else everyone would have kept ignoring it and I was the only one who could see them."

"Matt, how do you expect anyone to believe that?" She grabbed my hand and looked earnestly into my eyes.

"Insurance representatives are calling your father nonstop. The local news reported on it, Matt."

I was silent. Hearing about these types of concerns meant nothing for me. I was going to be dead soon, but my family still had to deal with everything I had done in the name of exorcizing a haunted house.

Great.

"For God's Sake, Matt! Say something!" She forced my head back to her general direction.

I couldn't meet her eyes.

"The policed asked me if I wanted to press _charges_ against you! If the _owner_ wanted to press charges!"

And there were no words for the look in her eyes.

"They wanted to arrest you after you were stabilized. They have consulted the doctors. And guess what they are going to decide?"

Was it irrational for me to feel so angry with her? Because at this moment… I just want to give up. I wanted to scream at her! So much for being _family_!

But what the hell? I wouldn't believe me either….

"What about the bodies?" She stopped, short.

"What do you—"

"_What about the bodies?" _I practically hissed.

"There were no bodies. None were found. The place was raised to the ground"

"How? How is that possible?!" She was staring at me like I was crazy again… "Billy and Wendy saw them! Where are they?! Ask them! Let them talk to the police!"

"They will take you into custody, eventually Matt. To sort this whole thing out. And I'm almost positive that we will go to court over this."

"Do you know what this means for your father's reputation? For the business?" She was livid. "And what about Wendy and Billy! Ask them WHAT ABOUT THE GHOSTS!? They're here too! They were admitted for shock, Matt! Billy hasn't said anything yet. It's been two whole days, already. And he won't sleep on his own and he won't speak!"

"What about Wendy?"

"She's, not well right now, Matt."

"What do you mean? Just because she's telling the _truth_!"

"There's evidence of this, Mom. When they built that highway they had to dig up a bunch of corpses."

She made a sound of disgust and turned away in disbelief.

"They found over a hundred coffins empty!"

She shook her head and didn't stop.

"They were in the walls!"

I, I felt empty at this point…

"Mom… don't you believe me?"

A knock sounded on the door, shortly following, "Nurse. May I come in?"

The door opened anyway.

"We understand that this is a difficult time for your family, but it's very late. And others around you are resting…" She looked sincerely sorry.

Our heads all turned at the next short knock.

"It's your physician, Dr. Lau, Matt. We have to discuss your most recent blood work. We need to run an MRI immediately."

"Doctor, I don't want him put through anything else. I think we've all had enough…" She sounded resigned. Resigned to my death…even though… Even though she had always fought for me before. Was this her…letting go? "Right, Matt?"

I couldn't speak.

"I highly recommend it. You see, his blood work is normal. He has a _normal_ white blood cell count, a healthy count. It's not elevated, despite all of his cuts and burns. And it's not within the hundreds like it was a few days ago." He looked at me. "Matt, we didn't know how you were alive, last time. But this is even stranger. Within two days, you are seemingly cured of systemic, autoimmune cancer?"

My mom's face was shocked. She couldn't say anything as the doctor came over and sat at the end of the bed.

I couldn't either.

"We need to run a scan before anything is definite, of course. And we will need to monitor you for another few nights."

He looked down at the floor for a moment. "I know that the police have been questioning us and other members of your health care team about the likelihood of mental instability, of hallucinations, and depression due to your most recent hospitalization and your condition… But something isn't right.

The way I see it, you should not have survived. But here you are today. Alive, breathing. Normal assessment, normal vitals, normal blood work. As if you were any other healthy, kid. Matt, I believe something miraculous…" He looked towards my mother. "Something maybe supernatural… Must have occurred to bring you to this point."

"I'm not…dying." It was a foreign thought in my head and on my tongue.

"No, Matt. I don't think so. You are very much alive." He smiled widely at me and clasped my leg.  
"I'll give you some time to let it sink it. I know you both need it." He excused himself.

"Matt…?"

"Jonah."

"What?"

I looked her dead in the eye. "Jonah did this."

"Jonah?"

"He…He saved me. He was the one that told me about the house and the spirits. Why all of these strange things were happening…"

"Mom, remember?" She looked as if she was talking to a ghost right now.

I closed my eyes. "The firemen pulled my body almost the whole way to the oak tree in the front of the house. They pumped my chest there and tried to revive me." I opened them. "You were in complete hysterics the whole time. You were the one that saved me. You ran in there and found me, even after the smoke…"

"I remember everything, Mom. I was there with Jonah. We were there over my body, watching everything. Billy and Wendy were being held back by firemen. They were wrapped in blankets… I started breathing there on the lawn."

"Oh, my God… Matt, you're not, you can't be lying. You were unconscious…." She held a hand up to her mouth, "But, how?"

"It was Jonah… I was dying, but he said he would return me. I don't think I understood what he meant at the time. But he saved my life. He possessed me, Mom. He kept me going until I made it to the house."

I was mumbling now, staring past her and outside of the window where dawn was breaking…

"Just until it was burning… But he must have done something else… Taken away the cancer… Taken my death along with him…" My head hung low. My upturned palms rested in my lap. They itched from the tears dropping and collecting there.

Even though he's been dead for so long…

Why is it that I still felt like mourning?


End file.
